Valya Yaptik, Yamal Peninsula, Russia

Valya is part of the nomadic Nenets tribes living all year round on the tundra of the Yamal Peninsula. In the Nenet family model it falls on the youngest son to look after the parents when they are old and subsequently inherit the family home called a chum. However both Valya and her husband Yasha don't expect their traditional way of life to last longer than forty years. As the permafrostthaws the landscape she knows is dramatically changing. Western scientists are now increasingly concerned that if the global temperature continues to rise, millions of tonnes of methane locked in the permafrost will be released into the atmosphere accelerating climate change and mirroring the fate of the Nenets onto the rest of the world.